Alternate History Wank: Difference between revisions
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In short, the point of divergence that created the [[Alternate History]] has also created a [[Mary Sue]] or, one could say, "[[Republic of Mary Sue]]" of one sort or another.
There is disagreement on what constitutes a Wank. Is a Greater [[Romania]] timeline where Romania controls all the regions it claimed in the early 20th century a Wank, or would Romania have to dominate the whole of the Balkans? But if Romania controls ''all Europe,'' the timeline ''probably'' is an
The disagreement on this is like the disagreement on what makes a [[Mary Sue]]. Some maintain that to be considered an Alternate History Wank, an alternate timeline must be by nature implausible or even invoke [[Alien Space Bats]] ''after the point of divergence.'' For others, it just has to show favoritism. One common result of this, however, is the fact that individual nations tend to be assimilated into large multinational single-state power blocs, with the end result in extreme cases being that [[Space-Filling Empire|the entire world is divided between two or three super-empires]]
Wanks tend to be characterised not solely by the success of a nation or other cause, but the fact that it is treated as [[Born Lucky]]: everything always goes its way, when an issue turning against it just once would have disastrous consequences. Using [[The Draka]] as an example, no-one seems to notice this vast evil empire growing in Africa and react to it until after it has already overrun the Ottoman Empire. The United States in particular is sometimes said to embody the closest thing to this in [[Real Life]]: Bismarck famously is believed to have said "there is a special providence that protects fools, drunkards, and the United States of America." Basically it can sometimes be difficult to tell whether the work in question is a wank or not, especially in light of the historical achievements of certain nations or individuals. If Alexander the Great had been a fictional character in an alternate history work then his rapid conquest and creation of a gigantic empire in a very short period of time would likely have been labeled a wank, however Alexander the Great ''did'' exist and ''did'' create a gigantic empire in a short period of time so wanks, unless they are clear-cut cases like the Drakaverse, are not always very easy to spot.
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== Literature ==
* '''The Angevin and Polish empires''' of Randall Garrett's [[Lord Darcy]] mysteries. The stories are set in an alternate timeline where most of the Northern Hemisphere is divided between two great ruling powers: the Anglo-French Empire, which extends over most of Western Europe (except Italy) and the Americas and is ruled by the Plantagenets; and the Polish Empire, which has conquered virtually all of Eastern Europe. The timeline splits in 1199, when Richard the Lion-Hearted ''doesn't'' die from the crossbow bolt at the siege of Chalus-Chabrol, but recovers, repairs his ways, and goes on to be a great king... Oh, and did we mention that these books take place in the 20th century, and that both empires are still going? Sure, it doesn't look anywhere near modern, but that's just because they use [[Magitek]] instead of normal tech.
* '''The Domination of Draka (South Africa)''' in S. M. Stirling's series on [[The Draka]]. The premise is that a colony in OTL's South Africa gains independence from Britain around when the United States of America did in our timeline, upholds [[Complete Monster|horrific ideals]] within its borders (including slavery), and manages to take over the world by the end of the series (Yes, sadly the image chosen for this very page was ''just the beginning'' of the wankitude). This is handled in such a way that it made the [[Wall Banger (Darth Wiki)/Literature|Wallbanger page for literature]]
* '''The Roman Empire''' in the Slaveworld novels. The empire never fell, sparing the world from [[The Dark Ages]], resulting in a [[Crap Saccharine World]] free from pollution and [[And I Must Scream|social unrest]].
* '''The Roman Empire''' again in Kirk Mitchell's ''Germanicus'' trilogy (''Procurator; The New Barbarians; Cry Republic''). The division point is in the distant past compared to the time of the books, and is the trial of Jesus before Pontius
* '''The Roman Empire''' ''[[Rule of Three|yet]]'' again. In Roma Eterna, the failure of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt, as well as a convenient victory over some barbarians, lead to a world where Rome remained divided and never fell. The America's were fortified by a Dane, which prevented Rome from capturing them.
** Don't forget the part where Mohamed gets offed before he can give rise to
* '''The Roman Empire''' again again [[Department of Redundancy Department|again]]. In the ''Romanitas'' series of books by Sophia McDougall, the survival of Emperor Pertinax leads to Rome controlling Europe, India, South America, half of Africa and most of North America. Japan controls the whole of Oceania, South East Asia, and parts of Siberia. China is reduced to a buffer state between the two. There's also an independent Africa that rebelled from Roman control.
* '''Life''': Dougal Dixon's ''The New Dinosaurs'' is a faux-nature book about how dinosaurs continued to evolve after the K-T extinction failed to happen. It's got shades of this trope, in that the lucky reptiles somehow manage to come up with close equivalents of nearly ''every'' major ecological type of
* '''"Libertarianism"''': ''The Probability Broach''' by L. Neil Smith.
* [[Harry Harrison]]'s ''Stars and Stripes Forever''. This features the British Empire declaring war on the United States after the Trent Affair, which somehow results in '''the Union and Confederacy''' conveniently patching up their differences and teaming up on Britain (even managing, at one point, to mount a land invasion of the British Isles).
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** The third and final book takes AH wanking to plain silly lengths, with the US now advanced to WWI level technology complete with tanks, dreadnought warships, production lines and other such advances (while still set in the 1870s by the way) thus putting the US over 100 years above the UK in technology, and culminates in the US conquering Britain, giving independence to Scotland and "introducing" democracy to the poor British masses.
*** Interestingly, the British claim they already have a representative system, only to be casually brushed away by the conquering Americans, saying it's not the same as theirs, so it must be wrong.
** The whole 'land invasion of Ireland and Britain' scenario also conveniently ignores or downplays the fact that to do so, the Americans would have to cross the
*** There is a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] (if that can even be called a battle) described in one of the novels that has a British ironclad stopping an American convoy heading for Ireland, protected by a new American ironclad. The American captain is itching for a fight, so he pretends that the tiny cannon that the British warship fires ''to the side'' in order to get the Americans to respond counts as an act of aggression and blows the British ship away with 2 volleys. Oh, and nothing bad happens to him as a result of this. There is a total of three battles described in the books that result in the British gaining the upper hand: one where they accidentally attack a Southern town instead of a Northern outpost, one where a Highlander regiment takes a fort in New York, and one where a British ironclad sinks an American one. That's it. The rest are all [[Curb Stomp Battle
** To be honest, the entire series begins to move away from
* In Norman Spinrad's ''[[The Iron Dream]]'', a post-apocalyptic '''Nazi style Germany''' conquers the world and begins to expand to the stars. (It's [[Deconstruction|ridiculous on purpose]].)
* In a way, '''Poland''' after the first set of ''[[The Cross Time Engineer]]'' novels, although {{spoiler|it would be more accurate to say, "Conrad Stargard's Army Empire"...}}
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* ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' fell hard into this trope. Guardia, a kingdom that stood for a ''thousand years,'' defeated Magus and his army, and is now defended by Crono, Marle, and Lucca who are mighty time traveling heroes... is taken down by '''Porre''' on the southern continent, in the span of less than 15 years.
** We don't really know the extent of the changes caused by their time travel. It might very well be that the elements from ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' gave an unfair advantage over natural magic from ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'', especially when trained in their use by Dalton. If they had elements at all. We also don't know the order some of the events happen, so Lucca's death could very well have happened prior to the war ever starting, and Crono & Marle (and maybe Lucca) would not likely have the capabilities to stand up to a total army, especially if they had superior training in their abilities.
* A lot of ''[[Europa Universalis]]'' [[After Action Report
* Similar to the [[Paradox Interactive]] grand strategy examples, ''[[Rise of Nations]]''' Risk-esque "Conquer The World Campaign" often results in this trope.
* In ''[[Empire Earth]] II'', the African campaign is set in the not-so-distant future and concerns a new energy source that can hold a lot of kinetic energy which allows '''Kenya''' to become a force to be reckoned with.
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